As we head into the late state and congressional primaries and get ready for the general election, we are faced with a recurring issue aggravated by COVID-19.  We have a very decentralized election infrastructure in this country.  There are certain benefits to the decentralized nature of elections in the United States, but there are also several big problems.

The benefits of a decentralized infrastructure is that it is very, very difficult to engage in election fraud large enough to make a difference in any election other than, maybe, the local mayor’s race in a small town.  In my state, there are over 100 election authorities and 3,600 precincts.  So you can possibly devise a scheme to stuff the ballot box in a handful of precincts or handful of counties (especially if the election judges nominally representing one party actually belong to the other party).  But you really need a close election for that to make a difference and you really need to add a lot of votes in those small number of precincts (enough to probably stand out).   The disadvantage is that it is hard to get everyone to follow best practices, especially as many local election authorities have other duties and are elected based on something other than their ability to properly conduct an election.

When it comes to elections, there are several big decisions committed to the discretion of the local election authority.  First, election authorities get to choose how many precincts there are (and where those precincts are located).  In theory, there are multiple factors that the election authority should consider — availability of buildings, local traffic patterns, parking in the vicinity, public transportation, the number of voters in particular precincts.  But most states give little guidance as far as maximum size of precincts. Continue Reading...